Apart from Evatt, the others, Don Scott and Bob Charley, didn’t have a legal bent.

"Because Clive [an old school friend of Scott] was a barrister and I had studied law myself, the Daily Mirror columnist, the late Frank Browne, called us the Legal Eagles," Scott divulged in Winning More.

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"Clive was 6ft 7in [200cm] tall and weighed 115kg, wore a dark three-piece suit in a mid-summer heatwave, a black homburg hat, a Christian Dior tie, a brilliantly covered silk handkerchief and a massive pair of binoculars and he stood like a colossus.''

No doubt at the time many who practised law were even more fervent on the racecourse and were given credence as legal eagles.

Perhaps Michael McHugh, who reached the pinnacle of his profession, was linked with them. Yes, they were good friends, but McHugh always did his own figures – and still does.

And when it came to enthusiasm for the punt, Tony Bellanto, QC, was hard to beat. “I’m a logical man, and the favourite is the logical winner,” was his mantra. Wise guys would counter it was also the logical dead-'un.

Morgan Ryan, a solicitor, was another major player. The “little mate” of many in high places, he was well connected on the turf, particularly with Athol Mulley, a great jockey.

But the Legal Eagles were more technical and proved “scientific study can be rewarding”, according to Australian Horse Racing.

Sure, Browne gave them the title, but things turned sour after their coup on a nine-year-old Diatribe, explained by Scott as conforming to the teaching of Pittsburgh Phil, the learned American horse player.

Next start, Diatribe dropped dead without the Legal Eagles' support.

"Their operations were brought to my notice when Mr Clive Evatt junior, the largest and most active of the group trio, stood on my toe in the betting ring with all the enthusiasm of a water buffalo," Browne wrote.

Folklore has it that as schoolboys, Scott and Evatt went to Gosford races with a ten bob stake and were still betting late that night at Dapto dogs.

Scott, with the appearance of a Toulouse-Lautrec on good legs, gave the impression of being more studious.

Even before he linked with them, Charley – always lean and immaculate with a landed gentry background – was a racecourse regular and astute form judge.

After they quit, Scott, now deceased, continued and became one the great authors on how to play the horses.

Why did Evatt drop out? One theory maintains the figures were going berserk because the Fence Jumpers, a bold team of nobblers with potent go-slow drugs, were plying their trade: leaping over stable security and even doping guard dogs en route.

Another centres on the Australian Jockey Club when it was more difficult to get into the members' enclosure than to break out of Long Bay jail. Evatt was apprehended with a press pass issued genuinely, but the AJC committee took exception.

Ironically, Charley later became the AJC chairman and one of the longest-serving racing administrators of our time.